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Archive for Murder

15th September 2016

Melinda Korosi (33) was murdered on 15th September 2016 at her home in Orton Road, Carlisle. She was beaten to death with a sharpened rock.

Ms Korosi was an English language teacher. She had two children and was a Hungarian national.

In March 2017, at Carlisle Crown Court, Miklos Verebes (29), Ms Korosi’s former partner and the father of her children, was found guilty of murder and three counts of rape between 2013 and 2016. He was sentenced to life in prison and ordered to serve a minimum of 28 years before he could be considered for parole.

Jurors watched a video of a police interview that Ms Korosi gave six days before her death in which she outlined regular sexual, physical and emotional abuse that she suffered at the hands of Verebes. Verebes had previously been jailed for an assault on Ms Korosi. He was also a Hungarian national.

Verebes murdered his Ms Korosi just two days after he was released without charge after she had reported to police that he had repeatedly raped her.

The Court heard Ms Korosi had already been classed as at high risk of harm following an assessment by an independent domestic violence adviser.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is investigating the contact that Ms Korosi had with Cumbria Constabulary.

Two Cumbria detectives are facing a misconduct inquiry.

An IPCC spokeswoman said: “Based on the evidence collected so far the IPCC investigator has decided there is an indication of misconduct by a detective constable and a detective sergeant at the force. Both officers have been notified. All other officers involved in this case are being treated as witnesses at this time.”

Following Verebes’s convictions, Ms Korosi’s mother Marta Hegyi Csiscman said she loved her daughter with her “whole heart”. She said: “It is very difficult to accept that she is no more, I can never embrace her again and I cannot help her achieve her goals. There are many questions and I don’t know if there will ever be answers to them, I only know that my big daughter of whom I was always proud did not deserve this and she will never be able to tell me what had happened and why. She can never make her dreams come true and cannot raise her children and I can never help her in anything anymore.”

by Jean Calder

Twenty two people died in Manchester and 120 were injured when suicide bomber Salman Abedi blew himself up at an Arianna Grande concert packed with children and young people. Given that the former teenage actor is an idol of young teenage girls, it is likely that the bomber understood very well that most of the victims would be very young and female.

It may be that, as some commentators have said, that the bomber simply didn’t care that the victims were children, but went for soft targets at an event with little security. Or that he deliberately aimed to attack children, knowing the distress and terror this would create. Few have acknowledged the probability that this was a deliberate attack on girls.

Journalists and politicians who had no difficulty describing the 2016 Orlando attack as an assault on LGBT people, struggle to identify the Manchester bombing as a targeted hate crime, aimed not at ‘children’ but at girls. Yet this attack is entirely consistent with previous evidence of targeted attack against females. In 2004, young islamists were recorded by British police while discussing a possible attack on a London nightclub. The men commented that no one could “turn round and say ‘Oh, they were innocent’, those slags dancing around”. The journalist James Harkin has pointed out that In 2007, a car bomb outside Tiger Tiger nightclub in London’s Piccadilly “seems to have been designed to coincide with a ‘ladies’ night’ at the venue, in which the perpetrators might have hoped to kill and maim scantily clad young women drinking alcohol.”

ISIS, the extremist Islamist organisation that has claimed responsibility for the Manchester attack, has many similarities to other Jihadi groups such as the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Jabhat al-Nusra (now Jabhat Fateh al-Sham) and Boko Haram. Their adherents are islamist Sunni Muslims, influenced by Salafism, a sectarian system of thought rooted in Saudi Wahhabism. Funded by the Saudi government this ideology is now deeply embedded in British mosques and has taken root in universities, museums, libraries and schools. At its heart is the forced subordination of women and girls.

The Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, like Boko Haram in Nigeria, regularly attack girls, often in their schools, subjecting them to fire bombs, rape, kidnap and murder. The most famous victim of this sort of attack was Malala Yousafzai, who was shot on a school bus in Pakistan because she campaigned for girls’ education.

Malala rejected the highly confined role conservative sharia law permits to women and in so doing asserted her right to freedom and self-determination. She was supported in her free choice by her loving parents – as were the teenage girls attending the Arianna Grande concert – but to Salafist jihadis this would make no difference.

While young men like Abedi treat the women of their own Muslim communities with contempt, they reserve their deepest loathing for rebellious women and those in particular who are ‘apostate’ or non-muslim. They view them, as the journalist Sarah Vine puts it, as “barely human, the lowest of the low, for whom no punishment or suffering can ever be enough.” She says “We see this in the treatment of young Nigerian schoolgirls captured by Boko Haram and sold into sexual slavery; we see this in the mass rape of Yazidi women by Islamic State guerrillas; we’ve even seen it in our own country, in the systematic sexual abuse of young girls in Rochdale by so-called ‘moderate’ Muslim men who wrap their own daughters in the hijab, while simultaneously defiling other parents’ children”.

Politicians have for decades sacrificed young Muslim girls on the altar of multiculturalism, allowing powerful community leaders and domestic tyrants to deny girls equal rights to inheritance, freedom and even control of their own fertility. They have allowed generations of boys to grow up believing that they have a right to control female lives and domestic labour – whether this takes the form of untrammelled sexual access to obedient wives and control of their children or the sexual abuse of White girls from Rochdale, Christian schoolgirls from Nigeria or Yazidis from Sinjar.

A young unveiled Muslim woman on Question Time (25th May 2017) spoke out against Wahhabism in British mosques, calling for Saudi funding to be stopped. This brave young woman was supported by panelist Nazir Afzal, the former Crown Prosecutor of the North East of England who had a key role in ensuring that the organised abuse of white working class girls by groups of Pakistani-origin men, was eventually prosecuted.

These brave Muslims, like the Amadiyha Muslim women who stood on Westminster Bridge in protest against the murderous violence of Khalid Masood, deserve our respect, support and gratitude.

Died 19th March 2016

Paige Doherty (15), a schoolgirl from Clydebank, Scotland died on 19th March 2016. Her body was found in woodlands on the Great Western Road on 21st March 2016.

In September 2016, at the High Court in Glasgow, John Leathem (32) admitted her murder.

Paige had more than 140 injuries and been stabbed 61 times, including 43 wounds to her head and neck, and 85 further cuts – many of them described as “defensive in nature”.

Paige, who was described by police as “vibrant” and “bright”, was last seen on the morning of Saturday 19th March at a Clydebank shop, the Delicious Deli, owned by Leathem. She had gone into the delicatessen to buy a roll before travelling to a hairdressers where she worked in Kirkintilloch.

Judge Lady Rae said: “This was a savage, frenzied attack on a child.”

The court heard a number of victim impact statements from Paige’s family. Her mother Pamela Munro revealed she continues to suffer “sleeplessness and nightmares”. Prosecutor Mr McSporran said: “She describes waking to hear her daughter’s screams and the awful realisation that she was not there to help her.” Her husband Andrew Munro, Paige’s step-father, was said to be “living in a state of depression”. The advocate depute added: “They cannot get out of their minds the terror they believe Paige must have experienced as the attack upon her began.”

Following the hearing, Detective Superintendent Duncan Sloan, who led the inquiry, said CCTV footage had been “vital”. He said “I am sure that the sheer weight of this evidence has led to the guilty plea at court today.” He added: “Our thoughts remain with Paige’s family, whose vibrant, bright young daughter has been cruelly taken away from them at just 15 years of age. Paige’s whole future lay ahead of her and her life has been brutally cut short by the vicious actions of one man.”

Died 23rd August 2016

Mia Ayliffe-Chung (21), a British woman, originally from Wirksworth, Derbyshire, died on 23rd August 2016. She was stabbed to death at Shelley’s Backpackers Hostel in Home Hill, near Townsville, in Queensland, Australia. She was on a three month visit.

Smail Ayad (29), a French national, has been charged with one count of murder, two counts of attempted murder, one count of serious animal cruelty and twelve counts of serious assault. Several people were injured, but Ms Ayliffe-Chung was reported to be the primary target.

Ayad is reported to have shouted “Allahu Akbar” during the attack, but police have indicated this was not a terrorist attack. They suggest Ayad had made advances to Ms Ayliffe-Chung which she had rejected.

Mia Ayliffe-Chung went to Anthony Gell School in Wirksworth before going to Chesterfield College to study psychology and communication and culture. She later went to Buxton and Leek College to study childcare.

Her mother Rosie Ayliffe said “She was an outstanding friend to many, and dearly loved by the children of our community. Her feisty nature and strong sense of justice made Mia a beloved friend to her peers and to all who knew her.”

Paul Lovatt, head of pastoral care at Anthony Gell School, remembered her as “enriching the school environment”.

Found Dead 25th August 2016.

Shana Grice (19) was found dead on 25th August 2016 at her home in Portslade, near Brighton & Hove, East Sussex.

Michael Lane (27) of Thornhill Rise, Portslade, was charged with her murder on 2nd September.

Ms Grice’s parents referred to her as a “kind thoughtful, caring daughter”. Sharon Grice and Richard Green, from Hove, described her as “our beautiful girl… who always thought of others”.

Shana Grice worked in the accounts department of Palmer and Harvey, a company in Hove. The alarm was raised after she failed to turn up for work. Director Brian Hurley said everyone was “extremely shocked and saddened” to hear of her death. He added “Whilst Shana only worked with us for a few months, she was a very well-liked and popular member of the Palmer and Harvey family.”

Sussex Police reported that the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) had been notified of Ms Grice’s death as police had previously had contact with Ms Grice and “other people”. There have been reports that, prior to her death, someone may have been stalking Ms Grice.

Died 22nd August 2016

Jean Constant (86), from Eynesbury, Cambridgeshire, was found dead on 22nd August 2016. She lived in the Poppyfields care home in Chapman Way.

An 87 year-old man from Eynesbury, was arrested on suspicion of murder, and released on bail.

Ms Constant was discovered following reports of serious concerns for her welfare as well as that of a man.

The care home consists of 34 one-bedroom flats with shared facilities and provides care for adults with dementia, physical disabilities and sensory impairments. It is managed by Hanover Housing Association.

A post mortem examination, at Peterborough City Hospital, has proved inconclusive. Further tests to determine a cause of death will be carried out and the police investigation continues.

Note: This report was drawn from reports on the BBC, ITV News and Heart.

Died July 2016

Samia Shahid (28), a British woman from Bradford, was killed in July 2016 in northern Punjab, Pakistan, in a so-called honour killing. She was reportedly strangled with a scarf.

Ms Shahid’s former husband Chaudhry Muhammad Shakeel has admitted to her murder. Her father Chaudhry Mohammad Shahid has been held as an accessory.

Ms Shahid worked as a beautician. She had filed for divorce and married her second husband Syed Mukhtar Kazam in the UK. Her first marriage was arranged, the second, in 2014, was her own choice.

Ms Shahid’s relatives initially claimed she died of a heart attack, but her husband always believed she had been murdered. He campaigned for the case to be investigated and was supported by Naz Shah, the local MP in Bradford. Ms Shah said he had had to be placed under 24-hour police protection after receiving death threats.

In his confession, Ms Shahid’s former husband, who is also her cousin, reportedly said he had demanded she leave her second husband and remarry him, but she refused to do so.

It has been reported that Mr Kazam belongs to the Shia branch of Islam and that Ms Shahid had joined it and this may have been another reason why some members of her Sunni family strongly disapproved.

Abubakar Khuda Bakhsh, the investigating officer in the case, said “Once, facts are established, we would be in a better position to say if it is an honour killing or a murder as revenge.” It seems that claiming this as an “honour killing” rather than a revenge killing would be seen as a defence in Pakistan.

Ms Shahid’s death came days after the high-profile so-called honour killing of social media star Qandeel Baloch, whose brother has been arrested. Ms Baloch’s death led the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, to announce that the government would pass long-delayed legislation outlawing so-called honour killing. The new law is still pending.

Every year in Pakistan, more than 1000 women are reported to have been killed in so-called honour killings – almost always by father’s, husbands and brothers. The actual figures are likely to be much higher.

Note: This report was drawn from reports in the BBC, the Daily Mirror and the Guardian

Died 30th January 2016

India Chipchase (20) was murdered in Northampton on 30th January 2016. She was strangled to death and had been raped. She was found to have sixty injuries on her body.

Ms Chipchase was a popular young woman and worked as a barmaid. She was described as a “vibrant” young woman with great potential.

In August 2016, Edward Tenniswood (52) was convicted of her murder.

On the evening before her death, Ms Chipchase was in a distressed state and became very inebriated at a nightclub. She was heard to repeatedly tell a bouncer: “I just want to go home.” She was put into a taxi by security, but got out when she was asked to pay the fare in advance. As she leaned against a wall, a witness heard Tenniswood say “we’ll make sure we’ll get you home in a taxi, safely”. He took her to his own house.

In court, he insulted her by suggesting she had consented to strangulation and had even suggested it. The jury did not believe him.

The court also heard from another woman who reported being pinned to a wall by Tenniswood, who held her by the throat and tried to kiss her.

Note: This report was drawn from reports in the Times and Daily Telegraph.

Found Dead 15th April 2016

Elizabeth Edwards (49) and her daughter Katie (13) were found dead at their home in Dawson Avenue, Spalding, Lincolnshire on Friday 15th April 2016.

Two 14 year old youths have been charged with their murder.

Ms Spalding worked at a local primary school. A neighbour is reported to have described her as “a lovely lady, very friendly” and “quite well-known because she worked at a primary school”. Katie was described as”lovely too but very quiet.”

DCI Martin Holvey, of the East Midlands Special Operations Unit, is heading the investigation. He has called for information about the period from around noon on Wednesday 13th April to noon on Friday 15th April.

Superintendent Paul Timmins said: “I would like to make clear that this type of crime is extremely rare. Indeed, we believe this is a completely isolated incident.”

Died 23rd March 2016

Lynne Freeman (46) and Jodie Betteridge (30) died in Redcar, Cleveland on 23rd March 2016 in attacks less than a mile away from each other.

Cleveland Police have charged a man with their murder.

One of the women was reported to have been attacked at an address in Mapleton Crescent, Redcar, at 8.45pm. Just seven minutes later, at 8.52pm, a second report was received from a member of the public that a woman was being violently assaulted in Byland Close. One woman was reported to have been disabled.

Ms Freeman was mother and grandmother and an active volunteer in her church. Ms Betteridge was also reported to be a devoted mother.

Found Dead 21st March 2016

Paige Doherty (15), a schoolgirl from Glasgow, Scotland was found dead on 21st March 2016. She was last seen on the morning of Saturday 19th March at a Clydebank shop, the Delicious Deli. She was on her way to weekend work in a hairdressing salon in Glasgow City Centre.

Her body was found in woodlands on the Great Western Road less than a mile from where she was last seen. Unconfirmed reports suggest she died of stab wounds.

Her mother Pamela Munro made a plea for public help. Ms Munro said: “We are absolutely devastated that we have lost our beautiful little girl and would appeal for anyone with information to come forward and bring justice for Paige.”

Detective Superintendent Duncan Sloan of Police Scotland is leading the investigation.

On 23rd March there were newspaper reports that Facebook images of a weapon had been posted showing a boy allegedly confessing to the murder. The same boy had allegedly telephoned girls to suggest or boast that he was the killer.